Numerous types of patient supports, such as tables, are available to enable the practicing chiropractor or other health professional to conduct examinations, adjustments and treatments beneficial to the patient. Most patient supports or tables are designed so that a separate section, such as a headpiece or thoracic, lumbar, pelvic or other section, is movable so that the health professional can conduct the desired adjustment or treatment upon a given part of the patient's body. In tables designed for conducting certain prescribed adjustments and treatments, the separate section has a movable mechanism that allows that section to be displaced predetermined distance to facilitate the adjustment. Since the tables, including the separate headpiece or other section, are generally provided with cushions, the cushions tend to absorb some of the forces manually applied by the health professional. It is therefore difficult for the health professional to accurately control the amount of force applied.
Improvements have been made in chiropractic adjustment tables, such as the one disclosed in Barge U.S. Pat. No. 4,445,504. This patent discloses a table in which a separate section is provided with actuating means that will abruptly and rapidly move the cushion a controlled distance. This is accomplished by the use of a cylinder the operating rod of which is affixed to the base of the cushion. When the cylinder is actuated by the chiropractor through suitable actuating means, the cushion will be suddenly and rapidly moved within a predetermined distance. When this force is applied simultaneously with the health professional manually applying a resisting force at the appropriate place on the patient, the health professional is able to conduct the proper spinal or body adjustment, and consistently and uniformly apply the same adjustment to that patient in future treatments as well as to other patients needing similar treatment.
Although the Barge Table is a substantial advance over the then existing state-of-the-art, health professionals using the Barge Table cannot determine, except by experience and feel, the total amount of force being applied to the patient. Moreover, as research and knowledge in the various health fields progress, it is becoming apparent that there are procedures where forces applied in rapid succession have therapeutic benefit for the patient. In any event, it would be desirable for the health professional to be able to accurately determine and measure the total force being applied to the patient and also to program the number of repetitions and the rate of repetitions of the measured force in a particular procedure.
It is therefore a object of the invention to provide an improved patient examination and treatment table in which the health professional can determine accurately and consistently the amount of total force being applied to the patient during a given procedure.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an improved health examination and treatment table in which the health professional can apply successive and controlled thrusts in an extremely short period of time, while still controlling the force applied.
These and other objects and advantages of the invention will become readily apparent from the detailed description and operation of the invention set forth hereinafter.